A power storage apparatus for supplying DC power is made up of a DC power holding unit, such as a battery, a capacitor, and so forth, a control-monitor circuit for monitoring a residual power capacity, and a supply power value, and so forth. Further, an electric power converter, such as an inverter for generating an AC voltage from a DC voltage supplied by the power storage apparatus, and so forth, is made up of a main circuit (a power module) including a switching element, and so forth, a driver circuit (a gate driver) for generating a signal for driving the switching element, a smoothing capacitor, and a control circuit for generating an actuating signal to be sent out to the driver circuit, and so forth.
With the electric power converter of this type, high-speed switching performed by the power module causes the power module to act a primary noise-generation source, and therefore, a control circuit board has needs for devising novel circuitry idea, and structural idea for the purpose of rendering the power module insusceptible to interference by noises generated by these power modules.
For example, with a technology disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-235929, a structure is adopted whereby both a power module, and a smoothing capacitor are separated electromagnetically and thermally from other constituent elements, thereby preventing heat generated by the power module from interfering with a gate river, and a control circuit, while preventing noises generated by the power module, and the smoothing capacitor, respectively, from being mixed into the gate river, and the control circuit, respectively.
Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-230064, a structure is disclosed whereby a power module, a smoothing capacitor, and so forth are hosed in an enclosure, while a gate driver, and a control circuit board are housed in another enclosure, thereby preventing noise generated by the power module from being mixed into the gate driver by combing these enclosures with each other.